1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly to an LCD device adapted to improve display quality and to simplify the configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) correspond to one of display devices which are widely used. The CRTs are mainly used as monitors for TVs, measuring apparatuses, information terminals, and so on. However, the heavy weight and large size of the CRTs have been a major hindrance to the manufacturing of small, light electronic products.
To address this matter, LCD devices are gradually being used in a wide range of applications due to their advantages such as light weight, thin thickness, and low power consumption. Furthermore, LCD devices are being manufactured to have even larger screens, be thinner, and consume less power, in order to meet requirements of users.
LCD devices display images by controlling the amount of light transmitted through liquid crystal. However, LCD devices are not self-illuminating display devices, unlike CRTs. As such, an LCD device includes a backlight unit disposed on the rear surface of an LCD panel and configured to have a separate light source which provides light necessary to display an image.
The LCD panel includes a thin film transistor substrate and a color filter substrate disposed to face each other and combined with each other by a seal pattern. Also, the LCD panel further includes a liquid crystal material which is injected between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate after the combination of two substrates. Such an LCD panel receives driving signals from a driver printed-circuit-board (PCB) which is disposed by an edge of the LCD panel. The driving signals are applied to gate and data lines of the LCD panel.
The backlight unit is classified as either an edge type or a direct type in accordance with the disposition of its light source. The edge type backlight unit includes a light source disposed in a position corresponding to a side of the LCD panel, and a light guide plate configured to scatter incident light from the light source. As such, it is easy for the edge type backlight unit to become thinner. On the other hand, the direct type backlight unit includes a plurality of light sources arranged at a fixed distance under the LCD panel. The plurality of light sources directly applies light to the rear surface of the LCD panel. Accordingly, the direct type backlight unit is mainly used for large sized LCD devices.
The LCD device ordinarily includes an LCD module. The ordinary LCD module includes a bottom cover configured to receive the backlight unit, a panel guide configured to support lower surface edges of the LCD panel, and a top case configured to cover upper surface edges of the LCD panel. This ordinary LCD module can be defined into a display area used to display images and a non-display area not used to display the images. The non-display area corresponds to the edge area of the LCD panel and the outer area adjacent thereto which are encompassed with the top case and bottom cover.
Such an ordinary LCD module further includes a driver printed-circuit-board (PCB) disposed by an edge of the LCD panel. The driver PCB is positioned within the non-display area. As such, the non-display area must be wider than the width of the driver PCB. Accordingly, it is difficult for the LCD module to minimize the non-display area due to the driver PCB disposed by the LCD panel. Moreover, the widened non-display area deteriorates the display quality of the LCD module and/or device.
Also, the ordinary LCD module has the complexity described above. Due to this, the ordinary LCD module must be limited not only to reduce the assembling time, the cost, and the total weight but also to make slimmer.